The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) conducted raids in 16 Regional Transport Office (RTO) checkposts and one police checkpost in the border districts of Tamil Nadu on Saturday. Close to ₹9.18 lakh of unaccounted-for money was seized.
On a direction from DVAC Director Jayanth Murali, raids were conducted in the checkposts from where corruption complaints arise frequently.
The raids started at 5 a.m and went on till evening. Over 100 DVAC officers and personnel were involved in the checks. “The highest seizure was in the RTO checkpost at Hosur in Krishnagiri district where close to ₹1.85 lakh was seized. This is because there is heavy movement of vehicles from Karnataka. The second was in the Nazarathpettai checkpost near Tiruvallur. The minimum amount was ₹5,500 seized at the checkpost at Palani Chettipatti in Theni district,” said a DVAC officer.
DVAC officials seized close to ₹20,800 from the police checkpost at Kaliyakkavilai in Kanniyakumari district. In Vellore, ₹1.32 lakh was seized from two inter-State border checkposts at Christianpet and Serkadu. The raids were conducted by a team headed by DSP K.S. Hemachitra.
In Theni, at the RTO checkpost near the Palani Chettipatti government bus depot, the police found ₹5,500 in unaccounted-for cash. V&AC DSP Satyaseelan, Inspector Geetha and others questioned motor vehicle inspector Rajasekar and other staff members.
In a similar search at the Puliyarai checkpost in Tenkasi district, the V&AC police seized ₹48,000. The team had arrived from Tirunelveli and held inquiries at the checkpost near Shencottah.
“The complaint is that some corrupt officials at the checkposts allow vehicles that violate the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, including overloading, to go after taking a bribe. The unaccounted-for cash that we seized was for one day. We will be conducting such raids regularly,” said a DVAC officer.
Officials said steps would be taken to file cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act against the officials. Meanwhile, DVAC officials conducted a surprise check in Virudhunagar and seized unaccounted-for money to the tune of ₹25 lakh and gold jewellery of up to 117 sovereigns from two motor vehicle inspectors.
The DVAC and Inspection Cell Officers intercepted the vehicles of two MVIs - Kalaiselvi, MVI, Grade-I, RTO Virudhunagar and Shanmuga Ananth, MVI, Grade-I, RTO Madurai North - on Saturday.
When the officials checked the vehicle of Ms. Kalaiselvi, they found ₹24 lakh and 117 sovereigns. They found ₹1.43 lakh from Shanmuga Ananth’s vehicle. Further investigation is on.
